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International Valuation Standards Council announces new Board members

10 November 2011

The International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC) has today announced new appointments to its Boards, following its 2011 AGM which took place in Hong Kong on 5 November. Frank Vettese, incoming…

The International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC) has today announced new appointments to its Boards, following its 2011 AGM which took place in Hong Kong on 5 November.

Frank Vettese, incoming Managing Partner & Chief Executive, Deloitte Canada, and a member of the Deloitte Global Executive Committee, has been elected to the IVSC’s Board of Trustees. Frank is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators, the American Society of Appraisers and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Joining Frank as a new IVSC Trustee is Akihiro Watanabe. Akihiro is founding partner of GCA and of its predecessor company, Global Corporate Advisory. He has over 25 years of experience in providing M&A advisory services both in Japan and overseas.

The IVSC Board of Trustees has also appointed new members to the IVSC’s Technical Boards. Dr. Cindy Ma, Managing Director and Co-Head of the Portfolio Valuation Practice, Houlihan Lokey, New York, joins the International Valuation Standards Board. Chris Mercer, founder and CEO, Mercer Capital Management, Tennessee, USA, and Professor Nick French, Dept. of Real Estate and Construction, Oxford Brookes University, UK, join the International Valuation Professional Board.

Greg Forsythe, Director in the Valuation practice of Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, will move from Vice-Chair to Chair of the Professional Board. Roy Farthing, Valuation and Business Modelling Partner, Ernst & Young, Australia, will become the new Vice-Chair.

Michel Prada, Chairman of the IVSC Board of Trustees, welcomed the new appointments saying:

“The IVSC is committed to bringing about consistency in the understanding and development of valuation practicesglobally and I am delighted that such distinguished professionals are prepared to help realise this goal. Greater quality and reliability in the valuation process is vital for reducing investment risk, adding confidence to financial reporting and providing a consistent approach to portfolio and asset valuation.”

-ENDS-

For press enquiries please contact:
Ryan McSharry or Anna Younger, Spada
[email protected] / [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)20 7269 1430

For further information on the IVSC please contact:
Marianne Tissier, IVSC
[email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)20 7374 5585

NOTES TO EDITORS

Biographies of new Board members

Frank Vettese

In his incoming role as Managing Partner & Chief Executive, Deloitte Canada, Frank will also be a member of the Deloitte Global Executive Committee. Frank currently leads the Canadian Financial Advisory practice and Deloitte Analytics. He recently completed his four-year term as Global Managing Partner, Financial Advisory. He developed the Global Financial Advisory Transformation Strategy and was a core member of the firm’s Global As One Transformation Strategy, leading the practice team to the highest level of growth by business portfolio last year. A highly regarded expert, mediator and advisor, Frank is an important contributor to the development of specializations for Chartered Accountants in valuation, forensic accounting, insolvency, accounting standards and principles, transactions, and corporate finance. Deeply involved in educating future leaders, he is an accomplished lecturer for universities and professional associations.

Akihiro Watanabe

Mr Watanabe is the founder of GCA Savvain Corporation, a leading M&A advisory firm that is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Prior to founding GCA Savvian Corporation, Mr Watanabe spent twenty years with KPMG, primarily focusing on Audit and M&A advisory service for Japanese and US companies. He joined the New York office of KPMG in 1982 and became Partner in the audit department of KPMG New York in 1990. After twelve years in New York, he returned to KPMG in Japan and became the managing partner of KPMG Corporate Finance. Mr Watanabe is a visiting professor at the MBA program at Kobe University and Chuo University as well as at the law school of Hitotsubashi University. He is an independent board member of Ranbaxy, the largest pharmaceutical company in India.

Cindy Ma

Dr Cindy Ma is a Managing Director in Houlihan Lokey’s New York office where she serves as Co-Head of the Portfolio Valuation practice. She specializes in illiquid and complex securities valuation and is a member of the firm’s Technical Standards Committee. Dr. Ma served as a panelist in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) roundtable concerning mark-to-market accounting held on October 29, 2008. She has also served as a consulting and testifying expert for the SEC on selected cases concerning mortgage-backed securities and structured products. She has conducted valuation training seminars for the SEC and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. She has led workshops on fair valuation on illiquid securities for the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, Hong Kong Financial Analysts Association and Hong Kong Securities Institute. Dr. Ma served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University, teaching an M.B.A.-level course in futures and options. She graduated with honors from Columbia University with a Ph.D. in finance and from Indiana University with a B.S. in accounting. She holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst. She has published numerous articles on valuation, derivatives and risk management and co-authored a college textbook on derivatives. She is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences.

Chris Mercer

Christopher Mercer is the founder and CEO of Mercer Capital. Chris began his valuation career in the late 1970s and has prepared, overseen, or contributed to more than a thousand valuations for purposes related to M&A, litigation, and tax, among others. Chris chaired the Standards Sub-Committee of the American Society of Appraisers from 2007 to 2011. He has extensive experience in litigation engagements including statutory fair value cases and business damages and lost profits and is also an expert in buy-sell agreement disputes. He is the author of eight business valuation books. Designations held include Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) from the American Society of Appraisers, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) from the CFA Institute, and Accredited in Business Appraisal Review (ABAR) from the Institute of Business Appraisers.

Nick French

Nick French is Professor of Real Estate in the Department of Real Estate and Construction at Oxford Brookes University, UK where he is the Director of the MSc Real Estate Programmes. He teaches extensively in the areas of appraisal, valuation and corporate real estate in the UK and around the world. Nick is also the Editor of the Journal of Property Investment & Finance, the award winning academic international journal of the real estate industry. He also writes regularly for many other professional and academic journals.

Greg Forsythe

Greg is Director in the Valuation practice of Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP (Deloitte FAS) in the United States. He serves as Deloitte FAS’s Business Valuation Technical Specialist and Valuation Learning Leader. Greg was a member of the AICPA’s Business Valuation Standards Writing Task Force, is a member of the Appraisal Issues Task Force and the Big Four’s Inter-Firm Group, an informal forum for best practices discussion related to valuation for financial reporting. Greg is also a member of the FASB’s Valuation Resource Group.

Roy Farthing

Roy is Partner, Valuation and Business Modelling, Ernst & Young, Australia, where he leads the Capital Equipment Group. He is currently Chair of the Australian Valuation and Property Standards Board and is a member of the national professional board of the Australian Property Institute.

About the IVSC

The objective of the International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC) is to build confidence and public trust in the valuation process by creating a framework for the delivery of credible valuation opinions by suitably trained valuation professionals acting in an ethical manner. It does this through the development of the International Valuation Standards (a new edition of which was published in July 2011) and by developing guidance and technical information to assist valuation practitioners in identifying best practice, thereby reducing diversity in the way in which the standards are applied in different countries.

The 2011 International Valuation Standards cover valuation of a range of assets – financial instruments, real property, intangible assets, and business interests. They aim to promote consistency and transparency throughout the valuation process and include explanations of common valuation methods and principles, as well as procedures that valuation professionals should follow during the conduct of an assignment.

For more information please visit: www.ivsc.org

There are more than 170 member organisations
of the IVSC, operating in 137 countries worldwide. Join them.

Become part of a global network working to enhance valuation standards and professionalism.

There are more than 200 member organisations
of the IVSC, operating in 137 countries worldwide. Join them.

Become part of a global network working to enhance valuation standards and professionalism.